


The Twinky

by danvssomethingorother



Series: Terran Food [2]
Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Peter is poisoned, peter whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2019-01-19 11:58:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12409902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/pseuds/danvssomethingorother
Summary: Peter is an idiot too willing to trust strangers who sell his favorite Terran food and ends up poisoned.





	The Twinky

“Quill, where the hell ya get that shit?”

Rocket was already feeling a head ache coming on, why was he the most responsible one on this damn team? It was like taking care of three babies plus Gamora who just got under his skin for the opposite reason the rest of them. Quill and Groot were literal children who just brought crap home onto the ship they knew he wouldn’t like but they got it anyway. Drax was the annoying child who he had to explain everything to and yell at for the hundredth damn time that was not something you can punch.

Then there was Gamora treating him like he was on the same level as these children.

“What ya want some?” Peter asked with that smile, that damn smile he just wanted to punch off his smug face every time he flashed it his way. He took a swipe at the box Quill was shaking in his face but it was yanked back and Peter held it over his dumb humie head laughing louder.

“Don’t be rude, dude, just ask and I’ll share my Twinkies with you.” 

“What the fuck is a Twinky?!”

“I thought ya said we weren’t allowed to say that word around little ears,” Peter said with a nod towards Groot watching the ordeal from a safe distance, little eyes locked intently on Rocket who began to bristle.

“I can do whatever I want because he knows better than to repeat anything I say!”

 

“Well, I can eat whatever I want because it’s my ship and my body.”

 

Rocket face palmed so hard he probably gave himself a concussion. Why were all humies such big stupid children?! Especially Terrans; true Peter was the only Terran he knew but he suspected a species incapable of interstellar travel were all like this.

“What is going on here?”

Great. More humies to join Peter’s stupid club.

Gamora’s head was poking up from the ladder, having been somewhere on the bottom level of the ship.

“Yer idiot boy toy here has been wasting money on Terran shit again.”

“Peter,” Gamora groaned just as annoyed as Rocket, “We talked about this. Food and supplies first, then your…’collectibles’.” 

More like garbage, Rocket thought with a sneer. Box after box after box were filled with Quills precious tapes, records, and action figures. Not to mention all the data he wasted on the ship’s main frame stuffing them full of shitty imports of Terran shows and movies. For a man who spent so much money on Terran shit, Rocket had no clue why he became such a whiny baby about going back to his precious Terra.

“Gams, it is food,” Peter said with that damn smile again, feeling like he found some kind of loop hole to his stupidity. 

“How much?” Gamora demanded standing in front of him, making him look nervously towards Rocket for help but Rocket crossed his arms. He wasn’t helping him out of this one.

“It wasn’t…”

“How. Much?”

“It was my money…”

“How. Much. Was. It?”

Peter stepped back and gave them a sheepish grin as he mumbled ‘500’.

Rocket about had heart failure, 500 units, that was his entire cut for that last mission and he got some gross Terran food. He saw Gamora definitely agreed with him on that, her face had that calculating stare it always held before she killed someone. Whether she wanted to kill Quill or the guy who ripped Quill off was up for debate.

“Authentic Terran stuff don’t come cheap and I was gonna share…”

Peter was kinda cute when he scratched the back of his head in that ‘listen I know I fucked up’ way and twitching nervous smile was always fun to see but Rocket was still in shock about how much he spent. They needed to have a serious conversation with him on how he spent his money.

Maybe Rocket would try to convince him to go back to stealing if he was just going to blow his income on literally anything…

How did he survive being with ravagers as long as he had? No wonder they always wanted to just eat him and be done with it if he had this little impulse control…

“What even are those?”

“On Terra we call them ‘Twinkies’. Man, they were always my favorite and I have been waiting over 20 years to eat one again, I think they were worth the price.” 

Rocket disagreed and Gamora’s still crossed arms showed she felt the same.

“So how do ya know they aren’t selling your dumb ass rotten food?”

Peter smiled widely at that handing Rocket the box to get a better look at them. The box was slightly dented and had a hideous yellow log creature waving at him happily on the box. He snarled passing them to Gamora who just stood staring at them in her disapproving matter, turning the box over to read the ingredients. 

“They are so packed full of preservatives, you could bury them and dig them up 3000 years later and they would still be good to eat.”

“But certainly not good for your body…” Gamora grumbled returning the box to him after inspecting it several times to make sure there had been no tampering with the box before Peter got his stupid hands on them. 

“I know!” Peter said with that childish grin firmly on his face, “That’s what makes them so great.”

“How does eating something that will slowly be killing your body ‘great’?”

“If ya like things unhealthy for you,” Rocket began that evil smirk on his face and Peter was already smiling wider while Gamora just glared at them, “I got some anti-freeze down in the engine room. Was planning on throwing it out but it seems like you might want it.”

“Just might take that offer, need something to wash down these babies,” Peter grinned wider gesturing his head towards his twinkies.

Gamora did not find this amusing and smacked them both on the back of the head making their laughter come to a halt. She bemoaned having to deal with such children on the way back down stairs making Peter shrug and smile before disappearing down the steps as well.

Rocket however fumed where he was and gave her a rude gesture for ruining his fun before going up the ship to the control room where he put it on lock down since Peter had finally returned for the evening.

He saw Groot smiling practicing the rude gesture and scowled at him in warning making him stop before he scooped him up heading back down the ship to rejoin his team. His nose scrunched at the smell as he hit the hallway, Drax was cooking and his cooking was always under cooked, under flavored and a pile of mushy grey lump he tried to call health food.

Rocket would give it to Peter, his idea of a meal may have been throw as much sugar at it until you couldn’t sleep for a week but at least it tasted good.

\---

There was a very simple rule when it came to eating dinner together: you weren’t allowed to talk.

If a fight broke out in the confined kitchen, someone was gonna get stabbed. Peter had been the first someone and it had been completely on accident. It was during a squabble Gamora and Rocket were having and Rocket dodging her knife fast enough leaping off the table he had been standing on, leaving a very stunned Peter with a knife in his shoulder.

Peter wouldn’t shut up about it for like a month, so it just became the unspoken rule: the table is for eating, not talking.

Today, Peter was getting on Rocket’s last nerve breaking that rule. Instead of having his dumb headsets on like he usually did, he was excitedly telling Drax about his dumb yellow logs. The Xandarian whiskey Drax had stupidly poured him wasn’t helping shut that mouth of his.

“You made diner, so I got desert, it’s only fair.” 

Drax merely grunted at that and Rocket noticed the stern look Gamora was giving him.

“It’s a Terran specialty!”

“The ‘cake’ you made was as well and it was disgusting.”

Rocket highly disagreed on that one, Peter’s cake was amazing. Peter was dumb, loud and brash but damn did the man know how to cook. Drax’s food was disgusting and made Rocket stick mainly to the liquor that came with it (a good sign this night was not going to end well).

“You didn’t like my cake?”

Rocket felt a little bad for the heart broken look on Peter’s face, he had noticed both Gamora and Drax had found it disgusting but Gamora had worked damn hard keeping Drax’s mouth shut to spare his feelings. Rocket usually enjoyed Peter’s shit, he wouldn’t say it out loud but give him this idiot’s sugary and bad for you garbage over the prison slop both Gamora and Drax insisted was good for you.

“It was lumpy and tasted like something only an infant would find eatable.” 

“I am Groot?” Groot peeped up sticking his tongue out at Drax’s food and pushing it away from him at his spot on the table.

“See? Tiny infant Groot will not eat the more edible meal but he did eat most of Peter’s barely edible food.”

“Drax,” Gamora warned calculating eyes falling on the warrior.

“Well, I can try tweaking around the ingredients next time,” Peter said, Rocket noticing the pain in his eyes that just popped out when he was drinking like this, “It’s not that big of a deal. Yondu was always a bigger fan of it when I added Taki.”

“Taki would make it sweater and that is exactly the problem with it,” Drax persisted ignoring Gamora’s shut up before I shut you up glare, “You must have no sense of self-preservation to eat like you do. You barely touched the Tarki, it will help you gain more muscle and maybe not be such a target.”

Rocket chuckled to himself seeing Peter being to seethe, pouring one then two then three more glasses of the alcohol staring Drax down as he drank. He was working up what to say that would hit in just the right way.

Groot tugged at his arm and Rocket groaned looking at those eyes staring up at him. He didn’t want Groot to see this but he didn’t want to miss Peter (rightly) tearing Drax a new one either.

Drax didn’t see this silence as a buildup of ammunition and continued to talk.

“The last mission you would have properly dodged that knife if you had more strength to throw your body farther.”

“That is true,” Peter said blankly, the rage building as he took another glass, “That is very true Drax. How about we all stop talking now?”

Rocket was smiling brighter, oh this was going to be good he thought pouring himself another drink and gently picking Groot up and tucking him into his pocket so he couldn’t witness this. Peter was giving Drax a fair warning to shut up.

“And you landing are always something to be desired, you always land straight on your face. If you would have a better diet instead of all this awful food you are always making us, maybe you could train harder to avoid these missteps.” 

“And your agility could be better. You have nearly gotten your head smashed in several times now. Your Terran body is weak and needs a more proper diet to grow stronger.”

“I do need a proper diet,” he agreed setting his glass down and staring directly at Drax, Rocket getting more excited for the murder he was about to witness but Gamora was already calculating how to keep damage down.

“I should start by not eating the garbage you are always giving me. I mean, not to be rude buddy, but I when I was about twenty I was starving to death so I ate rotten garbage and I think that was closer to culinary perfection then your slop. I think I have a much better chance dying eating this then me being weak and stupid in front of the enemy.”

“Peter…” Gamora hissed trying to stop this before it got farther. Peter turned his head towards her and took a deep breath looking a little guilty then took another three shots trying to keep his mouth shut. Rocket, however, was ready to throw more gasoline on the fire.

“And maybe if you are going to serve us rotten garbage, don’t be god damn cheap on the booze.”

“This is a very fine whiskey and I feel you are being too emotional, Peter. You are very weak and I am trying to help you by improving your diet. Then perhaps I could assist you in training your body more.”

“Improving it with prison food and then beating the shit out of me, sounds fun, will be just like old times with the ravagers,” Peter hissed slamming his glass down, looking drunk and just ready to leave the fight before he got another knife in one of his limbs, “Fuck this food. I am going to eat my waste of money in my room. It might make me just more useless but fuck it, might as well die happy!”

Rocket laughed loudly as Peter tripped over himself on the way out of the kitchen and tried to say he meant to do that to save face.

Gamora took the entire bottle of whiskey and began chugging it as Rocket and Drax soon began yelling at each other over something stupid that neither knew how they got to the topic to begin with.

\----

The next morning, Rocket was not surprised to find the bathroom already occupied by Peter, throwing up. He was dry heaving by the time Rocket came up, shaking his head at the door wide open and Peter resting his head against the toilet.

His skin was lighter then it usually was and his eyes were blood shot as he turned to look up at him.

“Hey man, just give me second,” he said having trouble hauling himself off the floor and leaning heavily against the wall, eyes tightening shut at the hallway light.

“I drank way too much and made many bad decisions.”

“Tch,” Rocket said with a smug grin, “Happens to the best of us.”

“On a scale of one to ten, how much do I have to grovel? I feel like I said shit that was way out of line last night…”

“It wasn’t to me, so yer cool,” he responded closing the bathroom door behind them, not feeling like dealing with the other idiots right now and only wanting to focus on the one.

“Drax started it, make him grovel,” he said firmly forcing his friend to sit back down, “You look awful. This cannot just be a hangover.”

“I ate the entire box of Twinkies,” he grumbled leaning his head against the wall, “I’m not really supposed to eat that many at once but I did and made myself sick. Like said, I made many many bad decisions.”

Rocket choked on a laugh, Peter was such a child. He was almost too cute at times like this.

“And drunk me thought sober me would be fine with him eating all my candy stash…Sober me is not ok with that. I’m going to be barfing for days.”

“As long as it ain’t on me, you should be fine.”

Peter didn’t respond to that, rubbing circles around his midsection looking like he wanted to barf again making Rocket back up as he did just that into the toilet. His barf was a rainbow nightmare of half disgusted sweets making Rocket almost never want to eat that shit again.

“I feel like this is a sign Drax is right and I have a problem…”

“You do have a problem and it’s called stupidity but that doesn’t mean Drax was right. He was being a major dick.”

“I just…” he began but didn’t really finish as he began barfing again, “Fuck…come on, it was a bowel of candy and six stupid sugar logs, stomach, you can usually handle this better.”

“And cheap ass liquor, don’t forget that.”

“No more candy. No more Terran food. No more booze.”

“Eh. Booze and the cake can stay, the rest can go. You should be good then.”

Peter smiled at him, not his full smile but it still had enough of its usual glow to make Rocket smile back.

“My mom gave me this note book filled with recipes when I was little and that’s what I make. I really like to cook, it reminds me things weren’t always shitty. I used to think I could make Yondu maybe like me if I kept it up after he told me he liked this cake I made.”

“Eh, just means more for me.” 

“Dude I am going to get you so fat, maybe I should stop cooking!” Peter’s barking laughter soon turned into him gagging as he began throwing up once more.

“I should still talk to Drax, I’m supposed to be like responsible and grown up now since I have a crew…”

“Dude, you should go to the med bay, you look bad. This cannot be from too much booze and sugar…”

“It happens more often than you would think,” Peter chuckled, “There was a very strict rule on the Elector. No one gives the damn kid sugar. He runs too much and then vomits too much afterwards, they said. ‘Sides, they said I needed to stay small to fit into the vents as long as I could.”

Rocket made a face at that, ravagers were disgusting to him in more than one way.

“For my twenty first birthday, I ended up in the hospital from too much booze and sugar…I just didn’t think I had that much last night. I have no idea how drunk I was…”

“I’m rambling because I’m still a little tiny bit drunk, can you tell Drax to come to me? I don’t wanna move…”

“I ain’t yer messenger, you go get him, but not until after you get Gamora to make sure your ass wasn’t poisoned. You look awful.”

“Ugh…no poison, just…booze and sugar and Drax’s health food…I’m gonna go to sleep now…”

Peter curled against the side of the toilet and began to doze off, his ass was drunk still that was sure but Rocket stood by it, you didn’t turn that color from booze and candy. Rocket had a feeling it was Drax’s shitty food that made him like this, he didn’t get this damn sick when Gamora cooked. 

\---

The next few days were hell, on Rocket’s nerves and to just every inch of Peter. He vomited most of the first and second day and by the third, he was just weak. Hardly able to leave his bed and with a fervor that just seemed to keep rising, steadily each day.

Peter had firmly waved off Gamora’s insistence he needed to see a doctor and instead Rocket found him in the infirmary alone on the third day, digging through one of the crates lining the wall.

Infirmary was probably stretching what this room really was, it was just an old closet they stacked a bunch of medical supplies in but hey it was good enough. 

Even in the dim lighting, he looked awful. His skin refusing to gain any color now shined with sweat. The bags under his eyes were still so prominent even with his head half buried in a medical box and the light source above them threatening to go out (again).

“Hey Rock,” he croaked coughing hard into his shoulder. It was weird not seeing him dressed in his usual jeans and jacket, instead only wearing a T Shirt that was a little large for him and boxers claiming he just didn’t feel like getting dressed.

“Whatcha doin’?”

“I still can’t keep liquids down,” he groaned yanking shit from the box and exerting himself throwing the shit to the side, “I need an IV line, that should help.”

Rocket said nothing and climbed on top one of the piles, pushing past things until he found the IV stand and pulled it over to his friend.

“And then what?”

“I think I got a severe case of food poisoning from something, so the IV will just help me gain back some strength.”

“And if doesn’t work?”

“It’s not going to just go away like that,” he laughed digging the needles and IV lines out of a drawer, “It will just help me not die of dehydration since my body is being stupid again and not just accepting the shit I give it.”

“This ain’t so bad. It’s just a more advanced stomach flu. Just gotta get through it. Nothing to be worried about, I’m not dying. Only dying people waste money on hospitals. ‘Sides, what the hell we doing stocking up on medical supplies if we are just gonna run to the hospital every time one of us throws up? That’s like running to a mechanic every damn time the engine goes out…”

“I guess your dumb ancient motor is exactly like your dumb fragile body.” 

“Exactly!” Peter mumbled through a mouthful of gauze as he made a tourniquet on his arm and Rocket flinched as he managed to miss his vein several times in his state, making a few gushing puncture wounds.

Rocket just knocked the needle from his shaking hand giving him a stern glare that shut him up instantly. He hissed a little at the mess he made of his poor arm before wrapping it tightly with bandages before moving to Peter’s other side to put the catheter in properly this time.

“Thanks Rock, yer a real pal,” Peter mumbled with gratitude as the IV began pumping liquids back into his idiot. 

Rocket gave him a smug grin and Peter returned it with his bright smiles.

“Hey Rock? Can I ask a favor of you?”

“It’ll cost ya.”

“Naturally…” he remained silent after that for several minutes, his tiny human brain working twice as fast to function a response.

“If I get worse…can you not take me to a hospital?”

“Why?”

“That isn’t the place I want to die, if I’m wrong and this is serious.”

“You idiot,” Rocket mocked him punching his arm making him smile again, “Ya aren’t gonna die, ‘cause I’ll be here and I’m the best at everything.”

“If only I had this level of confidence, maybe I could have been more than a petty thief.” 

“Ya wish, there is only one of me and I’m the best there is.”

Gamora came in seconds later not at all pleased Peter had just come down here on his own and told him so. 

He just smiled in his normal Peter way and let her help him up, guiding him back to bed. 

\---

By the fourth day, Peter’s fever was so high he was succumbing to delirium. He did not seem to know where he was, what time period it was or even who he was talking to. The only thing Peter could grasp was everything hurt.

“Yondu…” he whispered as Drax entered the room, carrying a new IV bag. Rocket didn’t move from his spot perched on top of his dresser, fiddling with wires trying to get Peter’s speakers to work again to help him find some comfort.

Groot who had been nestled into Peter’s sweaty hair, curiously peaked over the curls and tried correcting his friend but even if he wasn’t half mad from the heat, he probably wouldn’t understand him.

Unlucky for Groot, Rocket did and he was going to have a talk with him about that language. Drax was a fucking idiot but that didn’t mean he should be repeating it.

Drax stood by his bed looking confused, holding the new fluid bag and instead of doing something useful for Peter, just stood there looking stupid.

“Yondu…it hurts…” Peter whispered latching onto Drax, “Please…Yondu…make it stop…”

“Peter,” Drax said firmly trying to get him to focus on him, “It is I Drax, Yondu is not here.”

“Yondu…” Peter continued as if Drax hadn’t said anything, “Please. Just end it…it hurts…I don’t understand what I did…”

He was crying and trying desperately to pull Drax closer to him but Drax wouldn’t budge. Rocket was seething, he wasn’t even attempting to comfort Peter or make him stop pulling like that, his catheter yanking hard against his skin, beginning to make red buddle against his bandages. 

“Yondu…please…Yondu…” he was too weak for his voice to go above a raspy whisper but his voice seemed to echo through the room as he became more desperate shaking Drax who was proving to be more useless by the second doing nothing to make Peter stop.

Rocket scowled at him jumping up and digging through the box of medicine Gamora had brought in that morning from the med room until he pulled out the sedative and wasted no more time filling the syringe.

“Yondu…please end it…make it stop…” he begged shaking Drax harder who still wouldn’t move, “Yondu…why…please…I’ll do anything…I’ll go back in the tight vent and promise not to cry this time…just make it stop…”

“Why are you doing this to me Yondu?!” he sobbed out shaking Drax harder, “You said you would make sure nothing happens and it hurts so bad…make it stop…”

Rocket shoved Drax as far away as he could and hissed seeing the blood running down his arm where he had ripped out his catheter. No, no, this wasn’t good.

“Peter,” Rocket said firmly trying to catch Peter’s attention but he didn’t seem to notice or care he was there now.

“Yondu…” Peter groaned out again as Rocket plunged the needle into him and gently ran his finger across his burning hot flesh to help him calm down.

After several tense seconds, Peter let go of Drax, his limp fingers falling back onto his bed but Drax still didn’t move making Rocket’s anger rise again.

“Get out of here,” Rocket sneered his way turning Peter’s arm over to inspect the damage.

Drax said nothing and Rocket said it louder making Groot begin to whimper louder, more afraid then he was before not understanding at all what was going on.

“Are you brain dead?!” Rocket hissed shoving at Drax again, “Get the fuck out of here and go find out if Gamora came back with the medical supplies!”

Drax didn’t say a word as he left Rocket to clean Peter back up and that was fine by Rocket, he didn’t need him. This was his damn fault to begin with…

\---

 

Gamora was not in a good mood when she came back, Rocket didn’t even need to turn around to know that.

Rocket was running his finger across Groot who had passed out in Peter’s hair and mentally going through what he should do.

He agreed strongly with Peter about hospitals being a bad place to go, especially now that Peter was incapable of giving consent on anything they would want to do to him. They could handle this themselves, human bodies weren’t too different from engines.

Gamora slammed the supply box down hard on Peter’s desk, making both Peter and Groot begin to squirm under him.

Neither he nor Gamora said anything to each other, their eyes met as Gamora began inspecting Rocket’s work and both eyed each other up. Both calculating how they were gonna win this fight if it turned into one, neither willing to lose.

“We can’t keep letting him stay like this.”

Gamora was making her first move.

“Did you get what I asked for? The damn scanner is a piece of garbage, so I gotta check his blood the old-fashioned way to see what the hell is in his system.”

“You are not a doctor.”

“Quill asked me to handle it if it got worse, no hospitals.”

“He is in no condition to say what we should do, he doesn’t know who we are right now and I’m not letting him suffer because of your arrogance.” 

“And you aren’t going to do anything to him without his say so and like ya said, he don’t know who you are right now.”

“Listen, just give me two days…I know if we just find out what poison it was and how much he ingested, I can fix this.”

“Please…” 

Rocket never begged but he was ready to grovel now just to make Gamora understand. Peter had asked him to take care of this and he was going to do that. He wasn’t just going to let a stranger do whatever they wanted to him when he couldn’t tell them no.

“Fine but that is it and then he is going to the hospital. I would rather he hate me then for him to suffer slowly and die on me.” 

Rocket noticed Gamora pick something up from the corner of his eye. It was the stupid box of Twinkies, the stupid shit that had started this crap. She turned the box over inspecting every inch of it and promised she would be back before the dead line, if Peter wasn’t stable, he was going to see a real doctor and Rocket would be breaking a promise to a friend. He would be letting him down if he didn’t do this.

\---

Most sane life forms would have given up by now and just called quits after already being up for so long and working on such a tight time frame. Luckily for Peter, there was no one in the galaxy like Rocket except Rocket.

He’s pretty much trying to teach himself how to analyze blood from scratch and how to use this piece of crap that barely worked when Peter had ‘found’ it.

“Yondu…” Peter was moaning again, “It hurts…”

“Pete, buddy,” Rocket sighed moving towards him sitting at his side trying to get his eyes to focus on him, “Yondu ain’t here. You really pissed him off and I doubt he will just jump to come see you right now.”

“I didn’t mean it. Whatever made you mad…I’m sorry…please just make it stop…”

“Peter, you need to calm the fuck down man. Yondu ain’t here, whatever you think he did to you, he didn’t and if he did in the past, he can’t now.”

Rocket would kill him before he let him, especially with Peter so vulnerable right now. His skin grayer then Drax’s and eyes sinking in. He was a few steps away from being a corpse and if it wasn’t for the rise and fall of his chest, Rocket wouldn’t be so sure he wasn’t.

“Yondu…” he sobbed out beginning to cry again and just making Rocket feel weird emotions he didn’t like.

Drax chose now of all times to show up.

Peter latched onto Drax as he approached his bed, sobbing harder and Drax sat down much to Rocket’s annoyance.

“You are making him worse,” he hissed in his direction, “He thinks you are Yondu right now.”

“And that is why I should stay,” Drax answered, “Peter wants his father and Gamora says I am not allowed to call him.”

“Yondu….oh what ever, I don’t have time for this shit.”

Rocket went back to his work, but couldn’t help the annoyed growl as Drax laid down next to Peter who curled against him begging ‘Yondu’ to not leave him alone.

\---

Rocket had run out of time, he barely had the damn machine working when Gamora declared impatiently that Peter was going to the hospital. Sneaky, no good assassin had gone behind his back and called the damn Nova Corps, now a very nervous Rhomann Dey was standing by the entrance of their ship casually informing Drax the medics wouldn’t enter until they got full permission and Rocket wasn’t going to give it to them.

When Drax came back into the med bay to inform them of this Rocket and Gamora were already fighting to take control of the ship’s security. Rocket inside the vents, by passing the servers and putting it on lock down to keep his promise to Peter and Gamora snaking her arm into the vent she could not fit into swiping at him, yelling curses Drax didn’t even know. He would try to incorporate them into battle sometime.

He sat down next to Peter who grabbed onto him, as he usually did and noticed he was very distressed breathing hard and clawing desperately at Drax’s arm.

He at first assumed it was because of Gamora and Rocket screaming and Groot crying loudly beside him but on further inspection Drax realized sadly it was because his condition was worsening.

“Yondu…hurts…” he choked out before beginning to violently cough and Drax made his own decision seeing blood specs hitting his white sheets.

Gently as he could he picked Peter up from the bed and called to his friends he was taking him outside to the medical staff waiting out there.

Neither noticed him do so, too busy fighting each other. Drax assumed the Nova Corp could handle them, so he told Dey to do so as he left with the medical staff to make certain Peter was cared for.

\---

“What the fuck?”

To say Rocket was mad would be the understatement of the century, he was seething and ready to kill anyone who looked at him the wrong way as he marched into the hospital and jumped up on Quill’s bedside table to stare down Drax properly.

Drax didn’t react, he didn’t seem to care Rocket was in his face, teeth bared and claws fully ready to rip into the man in front of him. 

“Both of you are traitors! I could have fixed this and Quill believed in me!”

“Quill’s organs were slowly shutting down on him because you were not identifying the poisons in his body fast enough,” Drax stated not even twitching at Rocket’s angry snarl, “The doctor had informed me before you came in his kidney was the first to finally fail him and that was where the blood was coming from.”

“Will he require robotic transplants?” Gamora asked strolling into the room also ignoring Rocket’s anger, handing him Groot to try to keep him from starting a fight in a hospital. 

Groot latched onto him tightly and Rocket just glared towards his friends, not ready to forgive them yet but didn’t want Groot to see the blood shed he wanted to do.

“They do not know yet. They may be able to salvage his own organs. The poisons in his blood stream were very specific, they were deadly enough to kill even you Gamora with all your cybernetic enhancements, they do not know how a Terran lasted with such a high dose for as long as he did.” 

Drax looked tired and old as he stared back towards Peter, lying in his bed hooked up to many beeping machines forcing him to stay a little longer even though Quill looked ready to quit. Drax grabbed Peter’s hand and squeezed it making Peter smile a little in his sleep for the support.

“I had been hunting down the man who did this to Peter when I ran into Dey, he informs me there has been a string of deaths from this dealer. The man had poisoned many Terran foods in hopes Peter would be foolish enough to purchase one and he had hoped Peter would share.” 

Rocket saw the blood stains on the edges of Gamora’s cloths and felt some comfort in the fact that she had shown no mercy on the person who put their family through this level of hell the past few days.

“Did you kill this man who tried to kill our friend?”

“I did but I am afraid Dey was not happy about it but he has promised to let it go this one time, next time though I may not be so lucky.”

“Worth it,” Rocket said beginning to calm down at the knowledge he could at least tell his friend the good news.

\----

It took days for Peter to wake up from his drug induced coma, Rocket never leaving his side and never letting the doctors poke him more than necessary. He couldn’t keep him from this place he dreaded but he could let him keep some dignity.

“Hey Rock.”

His head shot up to find Peter smiling sleepily at him.

“Hey, ya idiot.”

“I eat too much sugar and drink too much booze again?”

“Pretty much exactly what happened.” 

Peter was smiling that smile that Rocket had almost thought he would never see again and he quickly turned away from. Pretending to look out the window while he swiped away the tears.

“Wanna do me a favor?”

“What’s in for me?” 

Rocket smiled not ready to face Peter yet. He had missed this, he had missed their routine. No one could back and forth with him like Peter and that would be what he would have missed the most if he had lost him.

“I’ll make you a huge ass cake if ya help me break out of this dump early.”

Rocket thought about it for a moment. Or he made Peter think he was as he composed himself more. He nearly lost him, that was hitting him hard right now and Peter was not helping already wanting to break out.

“Stay a day and then I break you out and you put extra Taki in it or no deal.”

“Ya got a deal, Rock.”

They shook on it and Rocket gave him a large smug grin. What could he say? Packaged Terran shit was awful but improvised homemade Terran shit was the best crap in the galaxy.

Peter held his arms out indicating he wanted Rocket to come closer to him. He hesitated and just stared at his friend but Peter, the giant child he was, made the decision for him grabbing him and pulling him into a hug making Rocket scowl towards him.

“I’ll put in three times the Taki and sprinkles man, you saved me back there and I owe ya one.”

Rocket was crying but Peter didn’t say anything about it just holding him for a minute longer before letting go.

Peter was the galaxy’s biggest idiot but he was Rocket’s idiot and nothing was going to take him away from him.


End file.
